Randy Woolgar Blog

Short and Sweet

2011-09-27T08:43:00.006-04:00

I thought I would share a fun little "brandable" video we produced a while ago. Everyday, it seems to be more relevant than ever. Stay tuned for the Teamwork and Customer Service versions!

So, how much does a story cost?

2009-06-17T22:47:00.000-04:00

Costing out a story without any details is a bit like asking a contractor to ballpark a kitchen renovation without revealing the scope of his work. Stories can come in many forms - from a polished 30 or 60-second TV spot, to a spontaneous feeling Facebook video. If you have a specific budget in mind, the creative and production approach can be tailored to suit.

But what are some rough guidelines? An engaging, branded profile of a local customer or employee that can be taped in several hours and edited in one to three days can start around $5,000. More polished videos that require pre-production research, a specialized crew, or additional shoot days, can range $20,000 and up. One thing is for sure, the larger your potential audience, the more worthwhile the investment.

If you think your story can be repurposed or shared publicly, (on your website, Facebook, or YouTube, for example) it makes sense to invest a bit more to ensure your brand (and your message) is communicated effectively.

Depending on your communication objectives, and the audiences you wish to target, you may wish to consider a series of thematic corporate stories that celebrate different employees and customers from various regions or business units. The stories can be distributed using existing communication channels, via social networks, or through video sharing utilities. This long term, strategic approach to marketing and corporate communications can be remarkably cost-effective when compared to traditional tactics – especially ones that involve media buys.

At first glance, video profiles of employees and customers sound expensive, but it’s all in how you measure value. Consider the cost of a themed three-day offsite for 100 employees, including AV staging, travel, meals and accommodation. Consider a recruitment ad campaign, including creative, production and media buy. For roughly the same amount, your company can build an entire library of videos to be shared with every level of your organization, from senior executives to new recruits, for months and years to come.

Corporate Storytelling: Maximizing Your Investment

2009-05-10T16:46:00.000-04:00

Well-told stories have a remarkable ability to create common ground and “stick” in the minds of the audience. It’s common for executives to share a short story or anecdote just before they tuck into a serious speech. A two-minute video can achieve this with pictures, sound, and music – and do it consistently, everywhere and every time.

The strategic themes woven into a typical two-minute video make it perfect to share in all sorts of situations from recruiting, to training and development, to marketing - the more venues you can identify, the better the investment. Story content can also be repurposed for web banners, digital signage, or tradeshow applications. If we choose, for example, to dial up product and service features, we can turn an employee story into an effective marketing piece for the company homepage.

The great thing about authentic stories is that they enjoy a tremendously long shelf life. Employees and customers may come and go, but the themes contained in their stories remain timeless.

Understanding The Value of a Good Story.

2009-04-22T13:04:00.000-04:00

To appreciate the power of a good story, you have to put on your marketing hat. Like advertising, storytelling is a persuasive form of communication that paints a picture of your organization, educates your target audience, and sells your product and services.

And, just like a marketing campaign, storytelling starts with a clearly articulated objective. You may need to move your audience from A to B, align them to your values and principles, or simply inform them of your products or services. Ad campaigns are well thought out, and stories are no different. Strategic stories can be easily crafted to elicit an emotional response in your target audience and achieve specific measurable outcomes.

Of course, there are many often-overlooked benefits, too. Simply looking for good corporate stories can significantly boost internal engagement within a large organization. The process of researching and identifying the people and stories that shape your brand is very powerful and often the most valuable part of the exercise. The resulting videos are like energizing souvenirs that can be shared with thousands of other potential brand ambassadors.

Stories: Leveraging The Engagement “Ripple-Effect”

2009-03-12T16:43:00.000-04:00

It’s no surprise that asking employees for their favourite customer service stories will spark engaging conversations about customer service. Polling your business units for stories of teamwork and innovation will focus their efforts on teamwork and innovation. By understanding this phenomenon, you can design a storytelling initiative that touches specific stakeholder groups with razor-like precision.

Let’s consider this example: You want to engage your frontline employees with a story about a specific product that is gaining traction with a narrow, but influential customer segment. Finding an authentic story that will do this is not as hard as you might think, but let’s not stop there.

Are your West Coast and Maritime regions feeling neglected? Choosing a story from Nanaimo or Charlottetown will earn additional brownie points from employees who live outside Toronto or Montreal. And what about your employment diversity program? Featuring a model employee who speaks several languages will say much of about your brand values and principles.

Finding and sharing employee and customer stories isn’t brain surgery. But, making the stories work on an emotional and strategic level relies on good journalistic sensibilities and a keen understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling.

More Sticky Ideas

2009-02-10T23:20:00.002-05:00

It takes a lot to cut through the clutter and connect with your audience. Whether you are promoting a product or service, communicating a brand, or outlining a business strategy, you need to make your message stick. If it doesn’t, you are wasting a lot more than time and money.

When considering a marketing or corporate communications initiative, follow this simple checklist. The more you incorporate from this list, the more effective your communication will be.

Dare to Be Clever
Human brains adapt quickly to consistent patterns then filter them out. Traffic noise, elevator music, and PowerPoint presentations are examples of events so commonplace they are rarely absorbed or recalled. To get the attention of your audience, your approach must be unexpected or mold breaking. To maintain their interest, you need to engage their intellect and satisfy their curiosity.

Keep it simple
Your audience won’t absorb more than one or two concepts so resist the notion to include extraneous details that clutter your message. Your goal is impact, not completeness – you want to ignite conversations that support your objectives.

Make it concrete
A statement like “maximizing shareholder value” is abstract, and not surprisingly, difficult to visualize. “Make a customer smile every day” however, is tangible, universal and understood by everyone. Being concrete allows your audience to focus on what you want them to. Everyone will feel comfortable that they’re on the same team and pursuing the same attainable goal.

Add the human touch
Weaving human elements into your message will help your audience find context and common ground. If you hope to connect at a deeper level, your characters must be real and believable. Models, actors, and professional announcers, satisfy practical challenges but rarely build trust in the minds of your audience. If you want to truly engage people around a topic, recruit a real customer, or frontline employee to deliver the message.

Stir in some emotion.
People follow their hearts. For your audience to take action, they have to care. Have comfort in knowing that you don’t have to trigger anger, laughter, fear, or sadness, just to get them to care. The emotional chord might be as simple as “What would I do in a case like this?”

Tell a good story.
People will emerge from a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation unable to recall the main points, but they’ll remember a 2-minute story they heard a week ago. Stories are part entertainment, part instruction, and help to simplify complex concepts. Couch your idea in a story and you’ll have a tool that provides your audience with the knowledge of how to act and the motivation to act - in one convenient package.

Don't forget about Delivery.
You would be surprised how many communicators overlook the importance of back-end distribution when designing their message. If the message isn’t effectively distributed, the opportunity is lost. Assuming you have at least one primary distribution vehicle, let’s look at other ways to maximize your communication effectiveness.

Make it visual. Incorporate a strong visual design. People absorb 85% of their information visually. If it looks boring at first glance, your audience may ignore it.

Make it digestible. Make your message short and concise, or break it up into bite-sized chunks. Let your audience decide how they want to process the information.

Spread it around: Have a plan. Take advantage of audience touch points that already exist including online channels, email lists, meetings, and live events.

Boost the frequency. Your audience is like grass - a frequent watering produces deep roots. For example, a small, memorable ad every week is far more effective than a full page every six months.

ROIdea.
If you want to ensure lengthy shelf life or leverage multiple distribution opportunities for your communication tactic, consider framing your message with a customer or employee story. A well-designed story that promotes your products or services will also communicate your brand in a memorable way. Stories like these can be easily repurposed for other audiences. Digital signage, town hall meetings, sales conferences, recruitment initiatives, internal training and development, are ideal venues to reinforce corporate culture and values. The universal themes your story communicates will remain relevant for years to come.

FACE TIME - Success Stories Communicate “What Went Right”.

2009-01-23T14:29:00.001-05:00

Hey, have your heard the one about the Trojan horse, that over-sized gift left by the ancient Greeks with 30 armed soldiers hidden inside?

Humans have been sharing success stories since the dawn of civilization, and the best ones often result from teamwork. They have been used strategically to inspire audiences around great leadership, loyalty, bravery, and innovative thinking.

The ingredients of a modern corporate success story often combine the best character traits of your brand (leadership, integrity, customer focus, for example) and show how these traits help a team of people reach a difficult goal.

Launching the new product, landing the big order, or completing the merger, are certainly success stories worth sharing inside your organization. Stories like these present opportunities to communicate the value of innovative thinking, teamwork, and collaboration, and to recognize the working groups who operate behind the front lines of your organization.

There are also a myriad of other stories that can be shared publicly and strategically to build your brand (and business reputation) in the minds of the consumer. Fixing a customer problem, donating to a charity, or cleaning up a stream, are stories that speak volumes about your corporate values and community commitment.

Success Stories are like flight simulators, they help your audience “feel” future success.

Thanks to the Internet, the distribution opportunities for a well-crafted story are almost limitless, and the cost per “eyeball” drops dramatically when you appeal to larger audiences. Videos can be creative, impactful and engaging, and highly customizable. They can range from a 30 or 60-second television spot, a light-hearted animation, or an inspiring mini-documentary. The form the story will take (and the budget to produce it) depends on your audience and how you want to touch them.

FACE TIME - Customer Stories: Put a face on your best customers.

2009-01-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

A recent study found that 80% of consumers believe that business is too concerned about profit and not enough about responsibilities to customers, workers, and the environment. Mix in the ability for everyday citizens to Google your company’s corporate responsibility or employment equity record, and a growing distrust of traditional marketing practices and you have a customer demographic that is hard to win over.

Brand relationships are just like personal relationships, if your character is shallow or inauthentic, your friends won’t stick around. These days, truth is the key to consumer brand loyalty.

So, how do you market truth to the masses? If price point is the key differentiator between you and your competitors, then low price guarantees and Saturday morning sales flyers may do the trick. If the freshness of your coffee and donuts will drive customer traffic to your door, mouth-watering photography and free samples may be a good marketing approach.

But in the world of hospitality, healthcare, education, and financial services, customer relationships are based much more on trust. Marketing promises made about caring staff and great customer service ring hollow until consumers experience it first hand – or hear it from a trusted source.

And that’s where customer testimonials come in. If you introduce someone that your audience can identify with, and share an authentic story about a great experience they had with company, you lay the foundation for a closer (and more profitable) relationship with your prospects.

The goal of a customer story is to leverage common ground and engage people in an emotional and relevant way. The story you choose to share will vary depending on your target demographic and your strategic objectives. If you want to appeal to a certain market segment, (female boomers, for example) you will feature a woman from that segment and share a story about her experiences with your company that her peers identify with.

Customer stories are like business referrals from friends and family. They provide personal insight and context that current and prospective customers will appreciate. When you combine model employees and loyal customers in the same story, you get the best of both worlds.

Watch for my article on Success Stories, coming soon!

FACE TIME - How employee and customer stories build trust, sell products, and grow revenues.

2008-12-12T16:17:00.002-05:00

Our world is a sea of complex work environments - where business lines, employees, and even customers, have interwoven, non-linear relationships. Our country’s biggest brands depend on a globally distributed workforce, comprised of multi-cultural and cross-disciplinary employees with differing experiences and points of view.

Building a successful, profitable company in today’s economy means tackling a multi-variable equation - you cannot rely on a simple, cause-and-effect sequence of events to produce the results you are looking for. Everyone in your organization needs to work collaboratively toward a clearly articulated vision.

So, how do you communicate that vision? How do you build trust and enthusiasm with your target audience? How do you create an emotional connection to your brand, your products, and your services?

Why not let model employees and loyal customers do it for you?

Employee Stories: A little recognition can go a long way.

Research in the UK has shown that dairy cows with names (Buttercup, Betsy, Daisy, etc.) produce more milk for their owners than their anonymous counterparts. Interestingly, the same holds true for employees whose contributions are recognized by their supervisors and peers.

Recognition is one of the key ingredients of employee engagement. It should come as no surprise that employee engagement is a critical to your bottom line. But how would a two-minute Facebook video about an enthusiastic new advisor from Winnipeg make you more profitable?

By profiling model employees, you are not just recognizing and rewarding great behaviour; you are making a powerful statement about your corporate values and principles, your definition of leadership, your best practices, and most importantly, your brand. The practice sparks a chain reaction, or ripple effect, that aligns and connects people across your organization to common themes.

Employee stories bring life to your brand

So, what makes a model employee? The answer to that will be different for every organization. One thing is certain; model employees are not hard to spot. Just about every working group or department can identify at least one model employee.

Formally recognizing these brand ambassadors, exploring their work ethic, and sharing their perspectives across the company will resonate positively and loudly with your stakeholder groups – from employees to senior management, from new recruits to customers. Your audience will connect to these employees (and ultimately to your brand) in a relevant, emotional way.

Employee stories are highly effective communication tools that can be featured on your corporate intranet, your careers website, or used in your executive town hall meetings, sales conferences, and road shows. When employee stories weave in concepts like teamwork, workforce diversity, corporate responsibility, and regional focus, their power multiplies exponentially.

Look for my next article on customer stories, coming soon.

Turf the Teleprompter: Improving Executive Communication

2008-10-10T09:22:00.003-04:00

It doesn't take much to turn a charismatic and engaging executive into a boring, wooden robot. All you need is a overwritten script, a stifling over-lit executive boardroom, a video camera and a teleprompter.

Most executive communications are paved with the best intentions. The problem is that the content is so often filled with corporate blah blah, that viewers simply tune out. A formal videotaped address can be intimidating for even the most confident executive, so why put everyone (including the audience) through the pain in the first place?

I discovered a long time ago that if you want to get the best performance from your executive you need to ignite their passion. And, if you want to get the highest level of engagement from your audience, that passion has to shine through.

Next time you're considering an executive communique via video - consider a fresh new approach:

Make it personal and authentic.

Record a candid, informal and unrehearsed conversation with the executive who is most passionate about the topic. Make sure he or she uses plenty of "I" and "we" statements free of corporate speak. Let body language speak volumes about their passion and commitment to the issue.

Make it real and relevant.

Make sure that the executive places everything into real-life context. Ensure there is a connection between high-level business strategy and the everyday activities of your customers and front-line employees. Resist the temptation to communicate earnings data, economic indicators, and statistics - these can be made readily available using other communication methods.

Make a brand and culture connection.

If possible, map the topic back to the values and principles of your corporate brand. Address the "what's in it for me" questions that will inevitably arise from your viewing audience and show that company executives are real people too.

Weave it all together using the power of story.

The best way to communicate a concept is to interject tangible examples of it occurring inside your organization. Consider stories that not only recognizes internal teams, but maps precisely to your business objectives. Finding those stories are easier than you think and your employee engagement will rise sharply as a result.

My experience is that a well planned informal "fireside chat" with a high-level executive takes no more time than the teleprompted speech to the masses. You'll need to invest some quality time in weaving the conversation together in the edit suite to ensure the communication meets your objectives.

The result will be an engaging 2 or 3 minute video that captures the passion of your leadership team, the successes of your employees, and the spirit of your organization. And of course you'll be able to use the video for a lot more than the teleprompter version.

MADE TO STICK: Why some ideas survive and others die.

2008-08-15T14:48:00.003-04:00

Making It Stick is well worth the read, but one of the take-aways for me was their 6 principles of stickiness. As Dan and Chip Heath pored over hundreds of sticky ideas, they saw, over and over, the same six principles at work.

SIMPLICITY

To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize.

UNEXPECTEDNESS
We can use surprise — an emotion whose function is to increase alertness and cause focus — to grab people's attention. But surprise doesn't last. For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity.

CONCRETENESS
Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images — ice-filled bathtubs, apples with razors — because our brains are wired to remember concrete data. In proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language: "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush."

CREDIBILITY
Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves — a "try before you buy" philosophy for the world of ideas.

EMOTION
How do we get people to care about our ideas? We make them feel something. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions.

STORY
How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. Research shows that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation in the physical environment. Similarly, hearing stories acts as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.

To summarize, here's their checklist for communicating a sticky concept: a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story.

Sadly, for those who try to develop an idea like this, there is a villain. The villain is a natural psychological tendency that consistently confounds our ability to create ideas using these principles.

It's called the Curse of Knowledge.

Rally your audience simply and cleverly.

2008-07-13T12:45:00.005-04:00

I was on Dan and Chip Heath's Fast Company Blog not long ago and ran across a link to a cleverly executed microsite called GirlEffect.

www.girleffect.org

The site seeks to rally audiences around complex, interwoven global development issues and suggests the solution to the world's woes has been in front of us all along. The site invites visitors to get involved in a wide range of development initiatives that will truly make a difference in third world and developing countries.

The online video that launches the site, and the additional resources available on the site are insightful and cleverly executed. GirlEffect.org proves once again that impact shall triumph over completeness every time.

Reuse and recycle: The shelf life power of a great story.

2008-06-10T16:15:00.001-04:00

I'm amazed how much large organizations spend on "single" or "limited use" videos that are played at a conference or a town hall and then tossed into the archive. It's not unreasonable for a large corporation to spend tens of thousands on a "big opener" - video that really doesn't have any real value outside of the event.

I'm a big fan of working with my clients to develop creative approaches and themes that will not only stand the test of time, but leverage a multitude of distribution opportunities beyond the initial premiere.

For example, have you been to a conference themed around teamwork lately? Have you seen the fast paced video clip with the sponsoring executive extolling the virtues of working together? Did you read the words "collaboration", "stronger together", and "team" pulsing to the beat of a popular music track as you stare at a seemingly endless collage of photos of a politically correct mixture of employees hugging and high-fiving. Oh wait, was that Fred from accounting in that picture?

Now, really. Does that really inspire teamwork?

I've found that you'll earn way more brownie points from your audience if you go out in advance and capture tangible examples of teamwork already occurring in your organization.

By theming your event around these "front-line successes" you not only demonstrate that it's achievable, but you recognize the people who are already doing it. You will be amazed at the rise in employee engagement when you start profiling company success stories based on teamwork.

In developing a strategic, story-based approach, you can explore in greater detail the techniques and best practices being applied, personal perspectives from those "in the trenches", and inspire your audiences to take ownership and do the same. You can edit the stories into engaging 120-second success stories for your company Intranet, or dissect the content and use the components as training resources.

Whether you roll it all into a punchy 90-second video, or spread your long-form teamwork stories throughout the organization, its up to you. One thing is for sure, the teamwork stories you produce today will have value to your organization for months and years to come.

True North- A Nut company use stories to differentiate it's brand.

2008-05-21T22:20:00.004-04:00

When I saw an engaging TV commercial about a committed local community leader during a visit to New York one weekend, I was compelled to go to the Web link advertised at the end of the spot. The 60 second story about Lisa Nigro, founder of the inspiration cafe, was sponsored by True North Snacks - a Frito Lay company.

www.truenorthsnacks.com

The site is the outcome of a contest, in which consumers of True North Snacks submitted stories about local heroes and voted on the winner. The story was then captured and turned into a 60 second spot which aired during the Oscars.

So, what's a True North? A true north is "that singular passion in life that causes you to leap out of bed in the morning and think "Why am I here?".

The goal was to connect True Northerners with a regionally branded nut snack and reinforce the company's commitment to social responsibility. Upon further exploration I discovered several spots about inspiring "local" thought leaders across the northern half of the US. All of the spots, it seems, were directed by Actress Helen Hunt and all are energizing with a high end look and feel.

There's even a behind the scenes interview with Ms. Hunt where her commitment to such social causes is shown to align nicely the brand principles of True North.

Stories like these help to reinforce, in a memorable way, the story behind the package of flavoured nuts you come across in the convenience store. Because you've been touched emotionally by the True North brand, you're more likely to place your trust in the product. By purchasing it, you presumably become a more socially responsible human being.

As the True North people state: while every True North story is unique, each one has the power to inspire millions more. Whew, too bad we can't get them here in Canada....

Hitachi Real Stories - Inspire the Next

2008-04-15T19:21:00.003-04:00

Here's a great storytelling microsite from the US division of electronics giant Hitachi:

These well crafted, high quality docu-stories celebrate Hitachi's strategic partnerships with educators, law enforcement agencies, and health care and social service providers. The stories reveal the innovative ways Hitachi technology is helping to improve the lives of everyday people all over the United States and a new one seems to appear on the site every several months.

In addition to this microsite venue, I have no doubt that the videos are used widely to promote Hitachi's products, services, and social responsibility efforts at all levels of the company - internally and externally. They bring the Hitachi brand to life in a real and meaningful way.

I must say, stories like this have a way of connecting with audiences in multiple ways - meaning, you don't have to be a prospective customer of high tech solutions to appreciate their brand values. What better way to communicate your brand to existing employees, prospective recruits, and strategic partners than to reward and recognize the innovators within your community.

Bookmark this site and drop back from time to time to see new material.

Online stories get traction

2008-03-05T22:05:00.000-05:00

I’ve been following a great number of storytelling initiatives on the Internet lately.

If you haven’t already, drop by globeandmail.com to browse some of the stories in their multimedia section. They are featuring a number of long-form documentaries that integrate photos, video interviews and lengthy articles. If you have 20 or 30 minutes to spare and want to tuck into something deep – this is the place to go.

If you’re hoping for quick and cheery, Home Depot is diving in with both feet in an effort capture the imagination of do-it-yourselfers of every demographic. The flagship video stories are rich [BIG budget], inspiring, and the Submit Your Story section features dozens of simple text-based stories from customers.

Blackberry, Genworth, Hitachi, and Shell all share stories that bring their brand to life. If you run across anything worth sharing drop me an email.

Cheers, R

RBC Client First Stories

2008-02-18T09:24:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked to see some of the many brand stories I directed for RBC.

I directed her to rbc.com but thought that it would be worthwhile compiling a few of the public versions of the Client First Stories for others to see as well.

In addition to being the creative lead on the initiative, I directed and shot most of the two-minute internal stories. To date, there have been almost 40 completed. These included a half-dozen "pilots" for various divisions of the bank - stories that helped to establish the look and feel of Client First, long before the name was formalized.

They included Steve's Auto, Muttluks, KK Plastics, and the Marshall's.

The first official Client First Story was Hilary and Dennis, the story of a young professional couple from Vancouver and the RBC Financial Planner who helped them get ahead.

Within a few months, we had completed Abe's Story, Pierre Paquin, Jack & Laurie and Kate. Recognizing the value of the stories both inside the organization and out, RBC established a client stories page off rbc.com. But the real return on investment was employee engagement and alignment around the "Client First" brand principles.

All of the stories are accessible on RBC's employee intranet, and many have been used to open town hall meetings, employee conferences, and training sessions across the RBC network. A number of recent stories originally developed with "internal-only" objectives, have also found their way to the public site. Notably, the story of Randy and Neil, the couple from Winnipeg whose story is now available on the Homeline Plan product page.

Grab a coffee, sit down and enjoy.

Welcome to the Storymasters Blog

2008-01-03T14:05:00.000-05:00

The last several years have been an exciting journey for me.

I moved from an energizing freelance directing career, to a Senior Creative post at a Toronto-based integrated communications firm. From there, I aligned with a handful of like-minded people and opened a creative services firm of my own. Our collective core genius: storytelling.

Like the others who have joined the team, storytelling encapsulates of all the things I love to do. I'm a writer, a cinematographer and a graphic artist who gets a kick out of weaving all those disciplines together in creative, memorable ways.

Had I connected the dots sooner, I would have drawn a line directly to Storymasters many years ago. But I'm also a believer that you have to wander down many paths in life in order to land confidently on the one that's right for you. Experience, no matter what kind, is a good thing.

Since the launch of Storymasters, the progress we've made has been remarkable. We went from zero to full throttle in a matter of weeks. The more we talk to people about stories, the more energized we get.

So, 2008 promises to be a great year on many fronts. The first and perhaps most obvious indication of forward progress is the birth of the Storymasters Blog. As version 1.0 of the Storymasters website nears completion, it makes sense to log on and get used to this rather informal, yet revealing method of communication.

Will the Storymasters Blog endure? Only time will tell....